Events
The Sleeping Beauty
200 de lei
Private event hosted by the National Theatre of Bucharest. The organiser is exclusively liable for the quality and content of this event!
Ballet in Three Acts and a Prologue
The St. Petersburg Classical Ballet Company of Andrey Batalov is created by Andrei Batalov – first soloist at the Mariinsky Theatre.
Graduate from the Vaganova Ballet Academy of Russia, Andrei Batalov has been on stage for over 20 years.
The choreography poses several challenges to the main dancers and soloists, but also to the ensemble. The role of Aurora - Olga Golytsia – as a choreography is among the most complex female parts, because it requires an extraordinary athletic prowess, but also a most accurate technique.
The ballet Sleeping Beauty was composed by Piotr Illyich Tchaikovsky from 1888-1889, immediately after the 5th Symphony and before the opera The Queen of Spades (1890). It is Tchaikovsky’s second ballet, preceded by The Swan Lake (1875-1876) and followed by The Nutcracker (1892). The idea was suggested to the Russian composer by the manager of the Imperial Theatres, I. A. Vsevolojsky, who appreciated especially his sense for the stage. Tchaikovsky received the proposal to process the fairytale by Charles Perrault enthusiastically and immediately started work.
This is what Tchaikovsky wrote about “Sleeping Beauty”: The subject is so poetic, so apt for music, that it roused my passion and I have composed the ballet with that warmth and pleasure which always condition the qualities of a creation.
The premiere took place on 3rd January 1890, in Petersburg. The subject is somewhat similar to Tchaikovsky’s first ballet, Swan Lake: the darkness is overcome, in the end, by the bright forces of love, friendship and purity of the soul. The spell is broken, the demonic characters defeated. The dreamy-romantic aspect remains dominant, thanks to the lyricism which Tchaikovsky knew how to instill into his characters.
In The Sleeping Beauty, the optimist side of the composer’s temperament predominates. Passages like the theme of the Lilac Fairy, the theme of love between Princess Aurora and Prince Desire or the symphonic panorama between the tableaus I and II from the second act stand out, suggesting the approach of the prince, accompanied by the Fairy towards the enchanted castle. The character dances, the series of fairytale portraits at the end of the ballet, the duel of the two cats, the dance of Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf, the pas-de-deux of the Bluebird, of Cinderella and especially, the theme of the Carabosse Fairy are testimonials of Tchaikovsky’s flair for the stage, which earned him such a major place in the history of Russian ballet.
Music: Piotr Illyich Tchaikovsky
Libretto: I. Vsevolojski and M. Petipa
After the fairytale by Charles Perault
Choreography: Marius Petipa
Scenography: Evgenyi Gurenco
Costume painter: Vera Poliudova
World premiere: 3rd January 1890, at the Mariinsky Theatre of Sankt-Petersburg
Monday, 5th March 2018, 8.00 p.m., NTB Grand Hall
Translated by Simona Nichiteanu